Growth kinetics of CdS quantum dots and synthesis of their polymer nano-composites in CTAB reverse micelles

CdS nanocrystals were synthesized in reverse micelles of water/CTAB + 4-penten-1-ol/benzene. Changing the micellar environment varied the dynamics in the nanocrystals growths. In “pure micelles”, which contained only Cd2+ and S2− precursors, the growth was continuous under relatively fast process with the timescales of several tens of minutes. However, when monomer and cross-linker molecules were loaded in the micelles, the Ostwald ripening growth was observed under slow process with the timescales of several hours. Besides the nanocrystal growth, thermal polymerizations were conducted in the micellar system containing of monomer, sodium methacrylic acid, and cross-linker, N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide. The obtained hybrid materials containing nanocrystals embedded into polymer domains were observed by TEM.